The Chinese government will host the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity to review progress and deliver a strategy for conserving biodiversity. The conference will take place in Kunming, in Yunnan province, China, October 11 to 24.
The UN explained that biological diversity is understood as a wide variety of plants, animals and micro-organisms. It includes genetic differences within each species, like between varieties of crops and breeds of livestock, and the variety of ecosystems like lakes, forest, deserts, agricultural landscapes that host multiple kinds of interactions among their members like humans, plants and animals.
The conference will review implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, which calls on member countries to review and update national biodiversity strategies and develop national targets. The strategic plan is known also as “Living in Harmony with Nature.”
Failures to achieve goals set in the convention on biodiversity will undermine progress towards 80 per cent of the assessed targets for eight of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals to transform the world into a more habitable place, the UN said.
It said three-quarters of the global land-based environment and about 66 per cent of the marine environment have been significantly altered by human actions. And one million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction.
Yunnan, the host for the conference, is known for its vast fields of tea cultivation and biodiversity is a major topic in the region. China has a particular interest to ensure success of the biodiversity conference because of the link between biodiversity and human life. China’s tea culture dated back to 5,000 years ago and the country is considered the largest producer of tea. Other major tea producers include India, Kenya, Turkey, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam.
Wang Tianquan, chairman of the board and president of Dianhong Group, a major tea company centered in Yunnan, welcomed the UN conference. He said the tea industry in China has played an important role in eliminating poverty and building rural prosperity in the country.“Today, Chinese tea industry will undertake a more substantial mission. It will uphold the development concept of technological innovation, ecological guidance, and service-oriented to create a healthier life for the betterment of all mankind,” Wang said.